a mahomedan’s story. 
121 
her fathers dwelling this hated Ab’dhoot resided in 
a den very similar to that from which I had so lately 
released her. So complete an influence did he obtain 
over her parent’s mind, who,, as she fondly observed, 
was a very devout man, that he believed the hypo- 
critical devotee to be endued with a power only second 
to omnipotence. In fact he both reverenced and 
dreaded him, even more than he did the severe Siva, 
or the still more terrible Parvati.* He was con- 
tinually endeavouring to impress upon his daughter’s 
mind the extreme sanctity of this holy man, whom 
he represented to be as gigantic in spiritual might as 
he was dwarfish in stature, until at length she looked 
upon him with a degree of superstitious awe which 
she could neither resist nor control. 
“ The wily villain induced her one day to visit his 
lair, under pretence of making her the vehicle of a 
divine communication. Having been taught to con- 
sider any opposition to a request of his an absolute 
impiety, she did not hesitate to comply. The mo- 
ment she was alone with him he took advantage of 
her defenceless condition and of her terrors to accom- 
plish his iniquitous purpose, and when she commu- 
nicated to her fanatic father the baseness of the holy 
man, he blessed her good fortune and his own that she 
had been deemed worthy the predilection of so sacred 
in their sacred book, to have issued at ihe creation from Brama’s 
mouth, the second from his arms, the third from his thigh, and 
the last from his foot. The Sudras are therefore looked upon 
as altogether ignoble and degraded. 
* Parvati is a female deity consort of Siva, the destroying 
power of the Hindoo triad. 
M 
